Henry VIII Got Six Tries. Could His Wives Get One?
Sign up for the weekly newsletter here: https://englandcast.com/newsletter-sign-up Everyone knows Henry VIII's divorce saga. He wanted out, the Pope said no, he invented a new church. Problem solved,...
8 Jul 18min
Edward VI vs. The Dragon: A Protestant Boy King Who Tried to Rewrite England's Most Elite Knighthood
In 1552, England's teenage Protestant king decided that St. George, patron saint of England, had to go. Not from one town, or one church. From the statutes of the Order of the Garter itself, the most ...
7 Jul 21min
The Forgotten Welfare State: How the Dissolution of Monasteries Devastated the Poor and Sick
Before Henry VIII, if you were sick, old, or starving in England, there was a place you could go. Monasteries ran almshouses, hospitals, free lodging for travelers, even schools for poor kids, all as ...
2 Jul 20min
What If Mary Queen of Scots Was Never Executed?
Mary, Queen of Scots was executed on February 8th, 1587, on the strength of a decoded letter and a forged postscript that Elizabeth's spymaster slipped into her own secret code. But what if that lette...
2 Jul 20min
The Invention of You: How the Renaissance Discovered the Self
📬 Free newsletter (Tudor news, vocab, treasures, behind the scenes): https://englandcast.com/newsletter-sign-up We talk about the Renaissance as the time people rediscovered the ancient world. But...
30 Jun 21min
Before Samuel Pepys, There Was This Devon Farmer Buying Velvet Shoes
A Devon farmer records buying velvet shoes and 30 gold buttons. A London astrologer hides his affairs in Latin. Shakespeare puts a soliloquy on stage and an audience recognizes something true about th...
29 Jun 15min
Body for Body: The People Who Ran the Tower of London
Did you know the very first person ever imprisoned in the Tower of London also became the first person to escape from it? He got his guards drunk, abseiled out of a window on a rope smuggled in via a ...
23 Jun 18min
